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My Review:Title: A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby
Author: Vanessa Riley
Series: Rogues and Remarkable Women #1
Published by: Zebra
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Format: ebook
Pages: 320
Genres: Historical Romance
Source: Overdrive
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Historical Romance Book Bingo
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband's mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune—and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child—until The Widow's Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor—and unexpected passion . . .
A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin’s dangerous financial dealings for Lionel’s sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Somehow, she's breaking his rules, and sweeping past his defenses. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust—but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together?
3.5 stars — Let me preface this review by saying I don’t read a lot of historical romances…in fact, I read very few. I’ve read a few that I loved and wanted to expand my interests, but it’s not something I gravitate towards. So basically, if you’re a fan of this genre, maybe take my review with a huge grain of salt.
This one started out slow for me. I got lost quite a few times. I am just not familiar enough with historical type things, and so I can’t tell if the writing was unclear, or it was me…I’m leaning towards the latter. I settled in at a certain point, but I have to say that I still have big holes of things I don’t quite understand. But it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the story on a whole.
Patience was not what I was expecting. I think my previous historical heroines that I loved have been more sassy. And Patience definitely had her humourous moments, but I still didn’t connect with her all the way. She was so rash sometimes she had my heart racing! I really felt for what she was going through though, both in the present and what her marriage with Colin had been like. I can imagine it being a common tale from back then, and I ached for her. I loved seeing her get her spirit back as the book went on.
And then there was Busick! If Patience wasn’t what I was expecting, Busick confused me soooo much more! It took me a long time to understand where all his regimentedness came from, and figure out when he was joking and when he was serious. I still don’t know if I understand all of his hangups from his mother and father… I LOVED what he was doing for his men, even if I didn’t understand until later. And I ADORED how he instantly attempted to fall into his role of loving guardian with Lionel — he was adorable.
Their romance had a lot of back and forth that, again, I didn’t quite always follow. That one is definitely my ignorance of the times. I liked that they pushed at one another, but I was occasionally surprised by the path their romance took. I think I wanted to love it more than I did. Or rather, it took until the last bit before I was fully invested in them.
Some interesting side characters, and I can definitely see how this series is going to grow. I think for me I just didn’t connect with the characters and writing enough to want to continue…although I am seriously curious about Jemima.
In the end I think I’m very particular in what draws me in to historical romance, and this one didn’t quite have it. But I will admit that once I settled in, it was an easy read and I wanted to know how it was all going to work out.
If it makes you feel better, I found this one tough to connect with and I do read and love historicals. I liked a lot about it, but yes, the characters and plot were a little all over the place.